MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

May 22, 08 - 03:31 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

Steve Ballmer is on a short list for a position in John McCain's administration should he be elected President.

May 22, 08 - 03:32 pm Comment from: Jubei

Ahahahahaha... oh well, maybe the ads that users will see will help them sell a billion of these.

May 22, 08 - 03:34 pm Comment from: Jubei

"Is the charade finally beginning to end or did Yahoo-obsessed Balmy just forget to send GameStop last month's Zune subsidy check?"

Hmmmmm how else can they sell that piece of " I want to be an iPod, but I don't know how" crap.

Wow great "reporting"

May 22, 08 - 03:35 pm Comment from: John Gee

Poor Zunies. I guess they have to squirt themselves.

May 22, 08 - 03:37 pm Comment from: Mac-nugget

I have seen ONE Zune outside a store. My wife's 12 year old cousin inadvertently bought one when he got his XBox. I played with it for a little bit. The only thing it had going for it was that it was not the brown model.

Even he thinks it sucked, but I guess at 12 the mind is still pretty young to make good buying decisions.

Makes you wish there were business rules that forced companies to give details on every product they sell.

May 22, 08 - 03:37 pm Comment from: Jay-Z

"GameStop has hundreds of stores across the country and losing that distribution channel could hurt Zune sales"

I think having a crappy product is going to hurt sales more.

@MDN:

It's a little two-faced to question whether Microsoft's sales claims are actual sales and not just shipped units, and not question Apple or any other manufacturer the same way. I also fail to see any support for your belief that the 2 million number is just shipped and sitting on store shelves.

MDN, lose the hardcore-fanboy attitude. I have no problem with appropriate bashing of MS or other companies (Apple included) where facts support it, but your take on this is completely without merit. I'm sure Apple sells iPods to retailers in much the same manner as Zunes are.

If you want to make a smart-ass comment, then simply do that and we can all have a good laugh. Don't try to pass off your dig as factual.

A neighbor of mine bought a Zune for his 10 year old daughter. It was on sale for $70.

I live in Redmond and i know only 1 person who has a Zune... haha.

May 22, 08 - 03:40 pm Comment from: HMCIV

What if they came up with another DRM license to complement Zune & PlaysForSure & Vista? It'd have to be something catchy though like SquirtsForSure.

Redmond's going to have trouble selling that ad space they were planning for those Zunes.

Buy an ad-spot on the Zunes and you don't exactly buy many eyeballs. Steve Ballmer, Paul Thurrott, and that fat guy with the tattoos get to see them and that's about it.

May 22, 08 - 03:41 pm Comment from: Journo

bizlaw,

A couple of points:

1. It is much harder to "hide" 85 million units in the channel than a paltry 2 million.

2. All of us here can actually easily find iPods in the hands of real people. Not so with Zune.

Thanks for playing.

Hey now, there *are* zunes out there in the wild, my sisters best friend has an aunt who knows a broker whose brothers friend is a zune owner.

For a little light relief -- The most evil man in the universe calls the most evil company in the universe:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C2SIZ5qsSQ

Fsck, I knew that thing my crazy bald asshole nephew gave me was a piece of shit.

(That's why I secretly bought myself an iPod touch last year. Shhh!)

May 22, 08 - 03:45 pm Comment from: Wandering joe

Bizlaw, most of us are really here to read MDN's take, if you don't like it then there are plenty of other news sites around

The Zune, it zucked!

May 22, 08 - 03:51 pm Comment from: Demon

The SPIFs stopped as MS started to looking at saving cash to buy Yahoo. Ballmer figured retailer would suck it up and do what MS wants them to do. GameStop will pay the wrath of Ballmer when MS cuts their Xbox allocations and their hot title shipments on new releases. Ballmer might even toss a chair at GameStop CEO. GameStop is after all the number one seller of the Zune.
Apple should approach GameStop about selling the iPods touch with game gift cards for the App Store.

@ Journo

"It is much harder to "hide" 85 million units in the channel than a paltry 2 million."

Paltry, indeed. I wonder how many iPod Touches Apple has sold, and the Borg hasn't even got anything advanced enough to compete with that.

AFAIK, Apple have sold something like 4 million iPhones and that's a genuine figure -- you can't get one now even if you want one, because they're out of stock.

The number of iPod Touches sold must run to similar figures.

May 22, 08 - 03:54 pm Comment from: Scott in Japan

SPLASH !!!

I don't think there's any question that the iPod touch has outsold the Zune at this point.

Memo sent to all Microsoft employees on a biannual basis:

DON'T FORGET: As an employee of Microsoft Corporation you are required to purchase ten (10) Zunes twice per year.

Will that be cash, check, or charge?

@chair-throwing, simian-like CEO
"For a little light relief -- The most evil man in the universe calls the most evil company in the universe:"

I'm sure Gates phones Ballmer all the time

I get BizLaw's point.
Usually I just ignore MDN when its in Super FanBoi mode (unless its really funny!). Just like most everybody will ignore what I just said. (Unless you find this funny, then you're welcome)

HA HA HA. Microsoft should just quit. It's almost as bad as the XBOX. Or Windows!

"Yes, I never saw one either"
Craig Ferguson on "The Late Show"

May 22, 08 - 04:07 pm Comment from: oh no my shorts

"We have decided to exit the Zune category because it just did not have the appeal we had anticipated."

lol, like skidmarks in your underwear have appeal.

"GameStop said it will sell Zune players online until it clears out its inventory."

I sure hope they don't have more than, you know, one or two of the Zune thingies in inventory, otherwise they could take a loo-o-ong time to clear out....

@bizlaw "MDN, lose the hardcore-fanboy attitude"

how, exactly, did you conclude that MDN was anything other than a hard-core Mac site?

Have you ever saw a Zune? I have saw many many iPods, iPhones (even in countries where the iPhone has not been officially released).

Also, I have see many people who has brought Apples's OS original. But even that I know many more people who uses microsoft windows, none, absolutely none of the has brought the OS, they got it with the computer or they get it from a P2P sharing program.

By the way, did you pay for your windows copy or it came pre loaded in your computer?

May 22, 08 - 04:13 pm Comment from: Zune Tang®

Insufficient demand? Ha! The real story is there is insufficient supply. Microsoft can't make these things fast enough and GameStop got tired of keeping the empty shelf space reserved for the blowout bestseller. In it's place are used Gamecube games.

If you're diligent in your search I'm sure you can find a Zune. I recommend getting up early on Sunday morning and getting in line with the rest of us at you local Best Buy or Circuit City. Hopeufully they won't run out. Good Luck!

Your potential. Our passion.™

Think about this for a second...

Assume Microsoft is telling the truth about how many Zune's have been sold (2,000,000). If GameStop was the ONLY retailer selling Zune's they would sold less than one per day per store... 25.25 per store per month by my math counting back for 18 months.

That is amazingly pathetic even of Microsoft!!!

@bizlaw

I don't think that MDN's take is particularly unfair. Whether it is 2 million sold/shipped, Zune is a highly unprofitable product and has not been well received outside of a few "fanboy" sites. Moreover, a very significant percentage of Zunes appear to have been sold at cut rate prices (e.g., a 30GB Zune from Amazon for $90) to clear retailers unsold inventory. The All-Mighty Ballmer even admitted that Microsoft has failed to figure out how to make money from the Zune.

There is also a pattern of sales "deception" from Microsoft. Claims that Vista sales are going well ring particularly hollow. My own organization of 10,000 + employees is almost exclusively PC. We buy NEW PCs with Vista and our IT staff then erase and install an XP image (downgrade). But Microsoft claims (rightly or wrongly) both the Vista sale AND the XP license in their installed base. Hence each computer is viewed as 2 by Microsoft.

May 22, 08 - 04:18 pm Comment from: Spark

The problem with bizlaw's complaint is that Apple is regularly reported as not publicly commenting on sales figures. The only time you find out is at their Qtrly Earnings Reports (which is why they have become such an 'event'). Microsoft, on the other hand, is notorious for bragging about how many copies of Windows or Zunes they sold to any reporter that will listen, even when the reality (as MDN states) is that the products have been pumped into the sales channel. When we hear simultaneous reports from Foxconn that they've shipped 10 million iPhone and from Apple that they've sold 10 million iPhones, then bizlaw will have a case.

May 22, 08 - 04:19 pm Comment from: ericdano

"Waiter, whatever Zune Tang is having, I'll have it too. In fact, make it a double."

Damn Zune Tang, you drink, eat, and poop the Microsoft KoolAid don't you?

I've seen pictures my niece and nephew have shown me featuring friends, and spotted 2 zunes. So they each know 1 kid with one.

May 22, 08 - 04:33 pm Comment from: nekogami13

I have seen one zune in the "wild"-my coworker got it as a free giveaway.
It may be clunky with crappy buttons and a squircle-but it was free and does play music.

May 22, 08 - 04:35 pm Comment from: shen

"Think about this for a second...

Assume Microsoft is telling the truth about how many Zune's have been sold (2,000,000). If GameStop was the ONLY retailer selling Zune's they would sold less than one per day per store... 25.25 per store per month by my math counting back for 18 months."


lol! didn't think of it like that. that truly is sad.....

May 22, 08 - 04:36 pm Comment from: Brau

MS must be feeling "the pinch" now. They couldn't sell more Zunes even if they included a roll of toilet paper with each one.

May 22, 08 - 04:37 pm Comment from: iamdj

@ericdano

ZuneTang® is the resident tongue and cheek. Read his/her posts with that in mind and find the humor.

May 22, 08 - 04:38 pm Comment from: MacBill

@bizlaw:

You are wrong on this one.

It has been widely documented by many news sources that Microsoft publicizes "units sold" as "units shipped to retailers". This is one of Microsoft's deceptive tactics that they use on a regular basis.

Microsoft is using similar deception with Vista "sales".

May 22, 08 - 04:55 pm Comment from: Predrag

...whereas when Apple reports quarterly earnings, they report revenue generated from iPods, Macs, etc. In other words, units sold, money received for them.

Two very different standards for reporting. MS does theirs, Apple their own. In the end, nobody still knows how many owners of Zune are there.

The truth usually comes out in the end.

May 22, 08 - 05:03 pm Comment from: Ampar

No Squirt For Them.

May 22, 08 - 05:04 pm Comment from: DRM sucks

"'We have decided to exit the Zune category because it just did not have the appeal we had anticipated,' said a GameStop spokesperson," Ganapati reports.

What? It had even less appeal than a turd?

iPods have been around long enough that there is the secondary market to consider as well-even though apple doesn't get any of that money, if you throw in the numbers of iPods that have been sold and then re-sold . . . staggering.

@Canada Mark

I agree with your Vista analysis. The SEC should really set in place some clear rules as to how a company can report a "unit sold" versus a "unit shipped".

It would be fun to see 2,000,000 Zunes shipped and 1,000,000 Zunes actually sold.

May 22, 08 - 05:39 pm Comment from: shen

"It would be fun to see 2,000,000 Zunes shipped and 1,000,000 Zunes actually sold."

have you ever used one? gone into a store and tried one out?

if so,you would know that 1 million sold is likely still to high......

"what a hunk of junk!" -movie quote guy

May 22, 08 - 05:42 pm Comment from: shen

""GameStop made the decision about a month ago," Ganapati reports"

and nobody noticed until today.....

@shen

Ya, I know I was being generous but I figured between the 12 Microsoft Executives who bought them for their kids (who then tossed 'em in the trash) and the Gates Foundation who bought 999,872 for distribution in third world countries like Canada (the only other place they are suppose to be available...), that it might come to a million.

Microsoft has sold about 2 million Zunes since the device's release in Nov. 2006

Apple has sold about 85 million iPods since Nov. 2006.


To really be fair, how many Mac OS X installs, versus PC Windows installs, have been sold during the same period?

Doesn't that make Mac "paltry" as well for comparable, single-digit market share?

So are we consistent or not? Before the f-lames start, I am no MS apologist, their stuff really is shit. But if we're gonna define what's a success, shouldn't that definition be applied equally?